Origin

The left side of this character is a small heart radical, which marks it as dealing with emotions and inner feelings. The right side is a sound hint that tells you roughly how to pronounce the character — it doesn't describe the meaning directly. When you put a heart component together with the idea of clothing or wrapping around the body, the character comes to suggest emotions held close to your chest, the warmth of affection in your heart, or yearning for someone you miss. Over time this character came to mean the seat of feelings and attachment, as well as the physical bosom or breast where the heart resides.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).